Whales, elephants, and forgiveness
So, I am just flattened by teaching three courses this semester. Not anything unusual I think, just the normal exhaustion that always happens when one changes work schedules dramatically. All that to say, I'm watching a lot of PBS documentaries lately.
Two in particular caught my attention lately. Saving the Ocean and Garangosa Park Rebirth of Paradise are both deliberately positive documentaries, looking at things that people are doing to repair damage to the environment. Two of their episodes share a theme- what happens when people stop killing a large intelligent, family-oriented animal? Can the relationship be repaired between humans and the animals?
So Grey Whales, like most whales were hunted for their oil and meat. From tens of thousands to 5,000 at the turn of the century. Baja fishermen were allowed to keep hunting them until 1947, when whaling was banned. The Grey Whales had a reputation among the fishermen for being particularly aggressive, in that they would attack whaling boats. So the fishermen called them, "devil fish" and continued giving them a wide berth.
In 1972 though, a Grey Whale sidled up to Pachico, a fisherman off San Ignacio Lagoon. As the whale was just hanging out next to his boat, he reached over and started petting her. (The documentary credits Pachico with making peace with the whales, but really, I think we have to credit the whale for reaching out first.) The fishermen of his village now have a self-policing fishing coop that does sustainable fishing for part of the year, and the other part of the year, the village retools itself as a tourist destination. The fishermen take tourists out to see the whales. They strictly limit the number of boats allowed out at one time, and they only allow themselves to take tourists to an area at the mouth of the bay- giving the nursing whales the whole bay as their "private space."
Apparently, the whales have gotten in the habit of coming out to see the boats. Mothers bring their babies with them, and the youngsters raise curious eyes out of the water to ogle the tourists. The tourists and fishermen put their hands in the water and splash to signal- people over here. And whales with a mind to be petted and rubbed, swim over. The estimate is that about 1 in 10 of the whales seems to have learned this "friendly" behavior.
"Destination Baja" on Saving the Ocean
Since Grey Whales live to be 55-70 years old, some of the families of whales would have had members who were alive during the time the fishermen were hunting them. (Heck, there could still be some individuals alive now who were alive in 1947.) So, one has to wonder, at what point did the whales decide we weren't dangerous anymore? I've always been amazed that the same whales that attack Japanese whaling boats are perfectly docile off American coasts-that they are apparently that smart. It hadn't occurred to me to wonder how long it took them to forgive the boats in American waters.
So that's the happy example. The elephants in Gorongosa Park aren't there yet. The million acre national park in Mozambique was once a thriving African eco-system. However during the first forty years of civil war (began in 1977 and no one seems to know if it is quite over or not), both sides hunted the animals in the park for food. A restoration project begun in 2008 is trying to bring back the park. One of the problems is that there are so few animals, like the few lions left, that there is a worry whether there will be enough genetic variety.
The elephants did a bit better. Though their numbers used to be around 4,000, there are still 250 of them left alive. However, it appears that they are alive through a couple of adaptations. Apparently whether you have tusks or not is a genetic thing in elephants. 1 in 10 elephants just never grow tusks. Among the remaining elephants in Gorongosa, it's more like 1 in 3. The two warring armies seem to have preferred to shoot the elephants with tusks- meat and ivory for all that effort of having to dress an elephant. So more of the elephants without tusks lived to reproduce.
The other adaptation is that the remaining elephant matriarchs turned into bad-asses. This is a photo of the camera guy's jeep being chased. That's a reoccuring theme throughout the series-that the people are trying to get the elephants used to jeeps, so they could hope to have eco-tourism. But the elephants are having none of it. Even when they tolerate people in a jeep for awhile, eventually they decide to run them off. (Well, actually, I think the elephant plan is to stomp them to bits, but the camera guy is now really jumpy and peels out his jeep at the first sign of trouble.) Not being successful with just chasing the jeep, the elephants have started planning a relay strategy, where one chases for a while and then trades off with another, while other elephants start trying to flank the jeep. After they run off the jeep, the elephants gather and kind of "high five" with their trunks to celebrate- we showed them.
"Elephant Whisperer" on Gorongosa Park
A mixed blessing. How good that the elphants were smart enough to figure out that human's are dangerous predators, and that we often come in cars. So the sound of an engine sets off the matriarchs. On the other hand, the long-term survival of the park will depend on tourism. (It does not allow game hunting, so it's got to eventually turn a profit on tourism.)
I hope the matriarchs make peace with the tourists one day, as the Gray Whales have. Well, and I hope the humans behave well-enough to make that forgiveness possible.